New Life Festival
by KKeeper808
Summary: New Life Festivals bring great cheer. Except to a Companion who doesn't like gifts. Will he like the one his wife got him? Will she like his? Psh, of course. This is a holiday story. (Featuring: Cry Silverworthy!)


**Merry Christmas! Well, Christmas Eve I suppose. **

**Early Christmas present! Yay!**

** I decided the best way to celebrate would be with my lovely Companion and her husband, as well as their whole family. I figured that they would be the easiest to give gifts too, and people have asked for another Cry and Vilkas one-shot, and I thought up this! **

**(Also, the idea on how they discovered they had feelings for each other? Wonderful! I will set to work on it right away!)**

* * *

The dark, star filled sky above Whiterun gazed down upon the festivities going on below. Cheerful voices and the sound of lutes and flutes and drums filled the air. All across Skyrim, all across Tamriel, people were celebrating the coming new-year. This was the Festival of New Life.

Everyone was celebrating by giving gifts and having parties, receiving free ale from the inns. And the Companions of Jorrvaskr were no different.

Cry was humming to herself as she wrapped the presents for her fellow Companions in colored paper. She placed Aela' sheath of glass arrows in box and covered the box in blue paper, wrapping it up and tying it off with a ribbon. She holds it up to look at it, nodding appreciatively. "Very pretty. Though, I don't know if that's something Aela will appreciate herself." Shrugging, she places the present down on the floor beside her and studies the remaining three gifts laying before her. Picking up Farkas' newly sharpened and enchanted steel great sword, she studies it momentarily, her eyebrows furrowing. "How in the Ysgramor's name am I supposed to wrap this?"

She looks around at her wrapping materials, picking out a bright red ribbon before she wraps it around the hilt of the sword with a flourish, tying it off in a bow. "Well, I guess that's as best I can do," she decides, putting down next to the rest of the wrapped gifts. She picks out a large box to put Torvar's new Orcish shield in, and then places it gingerly inside before closing the top and wrapping the box in green dyed paper, then tying a silver ribbon around it.

"Lovely. The paper matches the shield." She pushes the present off to the side and looks down at the last gift, a smile crossing her lips. She picks up the book she had gotten Vilkas and looks at the gold lettering on the cover. "_A Dream of Sovngarde_. I never got around to telling him about my visit. I hope he likes it." Even though it wasn't actually about Sovngarde, Cry knew Vilkas enjoyed a good story, and from what she had read, it was a good one.

She grinned sheepishly when she remembered that she had almost gotten him the first two volumes of _The Lusty Argonian Maid_, but had then decided against it on a last impulse. Along with _A Dream_, she had enchanted his own great sword as well and had Eorland sharpen it to its sharpest. Vilkas was hard to buy for.

"I don't want anything," he had told her earnestly when she had asked what he wanted.

"But you must want something!" Cry had argued, and Vilkas shook his head stubbornly.

"No. You're enough for me."

Cry huffed at the memory shaking her head. "The flattery will get you nowhere!" She places his book on a piece of red paper and wraps it up, tying it with a silver ribbon. She holds it up and wrinkles her nose. "Not my best wrapping job, but I suppose it'll have to do." She wraps a blue ribbon around the hilt of the great sword and puts it down beside the newly wrapped book. She studies her gifts and nods again before falling backwards with a groan. "Too much work!"

There's a knock on her door, and she sits up immediately. "No! Don't come in here!" she squeals, hurrying to push the gifts under the bed just as Vilkas opens the door, a smile on his face.

"Wrapping, were we?"

"No. What gave you that idea?" Cry asks, standing up. Vilkas' eyes look down at the extra paper and ribbons, and she blinks at them before kicking them beneath the bed with her bare foot. "Not wrapping."

Vilkas shakes his head with a sigh. "Okay, whatever you say." Cry grins and hugs him, her hands bumping into his, which she realized were behind his back. She pulls away, an eyebrow raised.

"What's behind your back?"

"Nothing," Vilkas replies, looking away.

Cry pulls his head back so that he's looking at her. "What do you have?!" She reaches behind him again, but he lifts his arm above his head, keeping it out of her reach. She jumps up to pull his arm down, but she falls short, and she stops, her arms hanging by her sides. "Why did you bring it in here just to keep it away from me?"

He grins down at her. "I like to watch you struggle."

She glowers at him angry, and then storms over to her bed, crouching down to pulls the presents from beneath it. "Are we starting the exchange?"

He nods. "Aye. We were just waiting for you, C."

"Well, let's go, then." She straightens up once more, struggling to hold all of the boxes and other presents in her grip at once, and Vilkas' eyebrows raise.

"A little full up, aren't you?"

"Maybe, and maybe not. Let's just, go, huh?" she grunts, pushing past him into the hallway. Vilkas follows her after an amused head shake.

(*)

"Cry! It's great!" Torvar exclaims happily, pulling the shield from the box. Cry grins from her position beside Farkas, who was fast asleep, one arm wrapped around his sword, the other around the big bottle of Honningbrew mead that Vilkas had gotten him, his thumb in his mouth.

"I thought you would like it. Your hide shield was rather old."

"Yeah, I needed a new one. I'll just have to get use to its weight," the Nord replies, staggering as he stands up with the Orcish shield on one arm.

Aela holds up her sheath of glass arrows, an eyebrow raised. "Where did you find these? I didn't know that blacksmiths sold them."

"Ah, I just…" Cry says, struggling to come up with an explanation, but Aela shakes her head.

"No, I don't care. They're great. Thank you," she says with a smile.

Cry's gaze turned to Vilkas, who was looking down at his book. She bit her lip when she noticed his expression was anything but joyful, and carefully got up and picked her way over discarded paper and ribbons to her husband. She sits down, and looks down at the book as well, and then back at him. "Don't you like it?"

"No, I mean, it's great," Vilkas replies, glancing at her with what she could see was a forced grin. She sighs, and then lowers her head to her hands.

"I knew I should have gotten you something else. I just didn't know _what_ to get you."

"Hey, I like it. Promise. And my sword is really nice too," he tells her, picking up the blade. "What enchantment did you put on it?"

"Burning," she answers quietly.

"See? It'll be useful when I'm fighting." When she doesn't reply, Vilkas glances at her. "Love?"

"I'm a bad present buyer!" she exclaims, raising her head from her hands. Vilkas sighs with an eye roll, putting his sword back down before wrapping an arm around her.

"No, you're not. I'm not an easy person to get presents for. I told you not to buy me anything."

"But I couldn't! You know me," she says, and Vilkas nods.

"Aye, I do. And you should know that I'm going to love whatever you get me, because that's just how I am."

Cry sighs once more, her head dropping back down into her hands. Vilkas smiles, and then reaches behind his back to pull out the small box he had been holding before. "You need to open my gift," he tells her, and she glances sideways at his hands before looking at him. He nods, and she takes the blue paper wrapped box from him, straightening up.

Gingerly, she begins to peel back the paper, revealing the brown wood beneath it. Slowly, she pulls off the lid and sucks in a breath of surprise. Inside the box was the most beautiful amulet she had ever seen, silver with a blue gemstone in the shape of a diamond in the center. She looks at Vilkas, her eyes wide. "Vilkas, it's beautiful."

He smiles at her obvious happiness, and then gestures down at it. "Read what it says on the back," he says. She picks up the amulet from the box, her fingers tingling. She turned it over to the opposite side, and held it up so she could see the insignia better.

"For my dragon. I will love you to the moons and back." Tears brimmed in her eyes and she had to blink to keep them from falling. "Vilkas! My present is horrible compared to this!"

He shakes his head, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing her tightly. "_You're_ my present, C." He takes the amulet from her and slides it over her head, pulling her hair through the chain. The cold silver chilled her neck slightly, but was still warm at the same time, and she leaned back against him with a sigh.

"We have to do this every year, don't we?" she asks, and Vilkas smiles again, pressing a kiss to her head.

"Aye. This is going to get tiresome after a while, isn't it?"

"Definitely," she replies.

* * *

**Ah, Cry. When will you realize that Vilkas is too Vilkasy to want a present?**

**Anyway, I hope you guys liked it! I actually looked for a holiday I could use as a Christmas type thing, and I found the New Life Festival. It's more like New Year's, but I figured the two were close enough. Besides, during New Life, you give gifts!**

**And gifts are cool!**

**So, my gift to you? Go read a lovely FanFiction I found when I was searching through the archives. It's called, Our Greater Destinies and is currently being written by Magister of Asariel. **

**I WILL SHAMELESSY PROMOTE BETTER FANFICTIONS THAN MY OWN ON MY STORIES BECAUSE I LIKE 'EM, OKAY?**

**So, go and look it up! It's Elder Scrolls related, and Skyrim, no less. Very nice, if I do say so myself. **

**(Much writing. Such better. Wow.) **

**Anyway, have a very Merry Christmas, or whatever holiday y'all celebrate, and hopefully I will be back soon with a new story.**

**Love you! **


End file.
